Hello all,

We have just stepped off our Chinese cruise ship after taking a 3 day trip along the Yangzi River, through the Three Gorges. We got our tickets last minute from a taxi driver who called himself Jack (at least we think he was a taxi driver!). After waiting half an hour in a back street hotel we wondered if there was any cruise at all. It all came good when we were bundled onto a bus with a load of Chinese holiday makers to watch an acrobatic show about the Three Gorges Dam Project before boarding our boat.

We started the first day watching the sun rise over Wu Gorge then took a day trip to the little three gorges, which we thought were much prettier than the main ones. Liz enjoyed her birthday and was sung happy birthday in Chinese. On the second day we visited a ghost themed village, which was sadly half under construction. Afterwards we were invited to have lunch by some of the other passengers, who laughed at Liz's chopstick skills and Dale's name.

Our evenings were spent learning Chinese from our adopted family that we were sharing a cabin with. They seemed to pick up more english and by the end of the trip almost everyone on board knew the phrase 'follow me' and 'lets go'.

We are off to Chengdu now to visit the panda breeding research base, update to follow soon. lots of love Liz and Dale xx